Dressing Up Desserts

 

By and large people are okay with box mixes when it comes to desserts. This is known. Now, there are levels of quality in them that can vary just as widely as if you were baking from scratch, but that's usually not a super big issue. If you're baking from ten-kilo bags of cake mix, your customers probably know what they're getting and don't really care. 

For the home kitchen, box baking is a serious timesaver and sometimes an eleventh hour salvation, but it's also something we all know about. So for amateur and professional alike, a great deal of home baking is about subverting expectations, and making things that come from boxes not look (or taste) like they came from boxes!

For that, we turn to flavor combinations, which for me come in tiers based on their intrusion factor with the recipe.

• Is it a flavor addition? Extracts, ground herbs or spices, sometimes liquid substitutions. Unlikely to affect baking time/temp.
• Is it a flavor and texture addition? A little more complex, things like nuts or fruit. Might affect baking time/temp.
• Is it a flavor, texture, and visual addition? Like the previous, but also designed to deliberately alter how the finished product looks. Often involves garnishes. Likely affects baking time/temp.

Now all three of those have their advantages and dangers, and they can be combined in varying measures to greater or lesser effect. Let's break them down with some examples using a neutral medium- say... a generic Yellow Cake Mix.

Flavor Addition: Might not change the look enough that people would notice... until they taste it.

• Extracts like almond, coconut, or citrus in lieu of the standard vanilla.
• Liquid in such mixes is usually water. Consider orange or apple juice. Earl Grey tea. A little orange blossom or rosewater, perhaps.
• The box might ask for neutral oil- could always brown some butter instead. Coconut oil works too, and any oil you'd use could be infused with spices ahead of time and cooled.
• Spices and powders. Ever ground up some freeze-dried fruit and mixed it into the dry ingredients? I have! Into the frosting, too!  

Consider- cardamom, browned butter, a dash of orange blossom water? Suddenly a cake might evoke gulab jamun. Perhaps instead some nutmeg and a splash of bourbon extract, and the cake might bring eggnog to mind. Even a bit further still- coconut oil, pineapple juice, coconut and rum extracts, mix powdered sugar and lime juice for a glaze, and we're in piña colada land. The possibilities are vast, and their presence can often be hidden till the first bite. 

Flavor and Texture Addition: People will notice when they take a bite.

• Coarsely chopped nuts, maybe some toasted coconut. Mix in, match with an extract, and you have a completely different, distinctly themed and flavorful cake.
• Dried fruit such as cherries, or chopped candied items like ginger.
• Minced or grated fresh tasties, such as apple, peach, pineapple, even carrot or beet.
• Chocolate/other chips or sprinkles. Simple but effective.

I've done dried cherries when making cake with lemon zest and lemonade- delicious! Also, there's always Carrot Cake, wherein people add all sorts of things, but I usually keep to grated carrot, maybe a little grated apple if I have it on hand too. A little texture, a little flavor, a little more fun.

Flavor, Texture, and Visual Addition: This thing doesn't look like it could have come from a box.

• Sliced fruit on the presentation side. Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, anyone? Works with apples, pears, peaches, and most sturdy fruit. Layer it prettily in the bottom of your pan (maybe atop some greased parchment to be sure it comes away clean), pour the batter over, and bake away. Invert, serve, enjoy!
• Baking tin variations. Bundt? Cupcake? Square? Whatever! Or do a thin rectangular sheet cake and break out cookie cutters for single-serving layer cakes. Or go even thinner and try to make it a roll cake! That's one tough though, I don't recommend it if you haven't had some practice.
• Icing, Frosting, or Glaze. Learning the magic of a piping bag and a suitable tip takes an hour of practice, and adds so much. Or even simpler- imagine the generic yellow cake with some minced candied ginger, but then topped by a glaze of powdered sugar and lemon juice. Striking!
• Stencils. Cut some stars out of a paper plate, and dust powdered sugar over it. Immediate visual improvement from an unexpectedly simple source.
• Crunch! Sprinkle a little white sugar on top and torch it till it's amber and glassy like a crème brulée.
• Toppings! Ganache, caramel, jam, marmalade, marshmallow, whatever you want- then something solid on that so it stays in place. Candied nuts, chocolate chips, basically anything you'd have put in a cake can go on a cake. Using toppings to clue people in on the cake's flavors is also a common and welcome thing.

So you see, taking a box mix and making it look like something special is easily within the means of almost anyone who'd be baking the cake in the first place. Experiment, explore, and enjoy!

Apples Aplenty

 
Apples are probably my personal favorite fruit. While nowhere near as many as a century or two ago, there's still a halfway decent variety available for purchase, and more still that can elsewhere be found. There's actually an apple orchard down the road from where I grew up, but it's been so long that I hardly recall the many different sorts. 

Whether tartness, sweetness, body, crispness, all manner of varieties and characteristics still exist. In truth, there may still exist a perfect apple for every potential purpose... except for whatever happened to the Red Delicious. That poor thing is a mess- they bred for uniform coloration, and in doing so removed a gene that added stripes... but also the majority of the flavor. Poor thing.

While I am likely to adore most any apple dessert (give me a Granny Smith apple Tarte Tatin with some vanilla ice cream and I will make it vanish), they have vast utility in savory applications as well. While apple sees a lot of play in stuffing whole roasted fowl (apple and sage, anyone?), there are also many preparations that combine apple and game animals, most notably of the porcine variety. Applewood smoked bacon, pork chops with applesauce, porchetta, all manner of stews, braises, and a great many sauces, marinades, and glazes that rely on apple for sweetness, acidity, and texture. The majority of commercial Asian 'barbecue' sauces have apple (or pear), and my own North Carolina pulled pork recipe uses both apples and apple cider vinegar.

On the science side, the pectin in apples adds viscosity while also acting in some capacity as a protein binding agent, which is why I often add grated apple to meatball and meatloaf mixtures- flavor, moisture, and structure/stability all in one.

I actually braised some pork belly in apple cider earlier this morning! Added some ginger and chipotle, got tons of flavor from the simplest of preparations. A fine lunch. 

Recipe Dev: Oatmeal Cookies

I'm a cookie guy. It's an ideal dessert for a lot of people because it's self contained, portable, and scalable. A plated dessert might be fantastic, but would you order three of them if you liked the flavors? Almost certainly not! Cookies don't have that problem- you can have one or two for a nibble... or look around to make sure nobody's watching before you indelicately obliterate that box of Thin Mints you told yourself would last a month. No, I didn't see that- nobody did. Honest.

Another delightful point in the favor of cookies is their versatility. Depending on your ingredients, your scoop size, your baking time, and any number of other things, you can turn the same cookie recipe into very different results in a way you can't do nearly as easily with cakes, pies, and pastries.

Unless you're allergic to chocolate, you probably enjoy a good chocolate chip cookie. I certainly do, and put my personal recipe up here back in February. That one calls for a mixer, but but today I wanted to showcase a cookie that doesn't. The recipe here is one I sometimes send alongside my Almond Cookies in tins during the holidays- a pleasantly robust oatmeal cookie. A sorely underrated gem of a cookie that's easy to tinker with. A little on the soft side, not too sweet, perhaps a little crunch underneath, and absolutely NO FUCKING RAISINS EVER okay that's out of my system good yes hello there how are you? Ahem.

This recipe is quite simple, coming together in about ten minutes (before going in the fridge to firm up). I designed it specifically not to require a stand mixer since I don't own one, but I've found that having a hand mixer (or immersion blender for one step) does help yield a fluffier finished product, if that's your thing.

Equipment: 1x Medium Bowl, 1x Large Bowl, Rubber/Silicone Spatula, Measuring Spoons, Kitchen Scale, Half-Sheet Pan (~13"x18"), Parchment Paper, Oven

Ingredients: (Yields about 3 dozen cookies, but the recipe also halves perfectly)

275g Rolled Oats
225g All-Purpose Flour
2 Tbsp Cornstarch (this makes it more like cake flour)
230g Unsalted Butter (melted)
180g Brown Sugar
90g Granulated/White Sugar
2 eggs (L or XL are both fine)
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Baking Soda
3/4 tsp Salt
2-3 tsp Spice Mix (I use cardamom, allspice, black pepper, ginger, and nutmeg)

Process:

If you plan on baking these as soon as they're ready, preheat the oven to 375F/190C.

In the medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and spices. Set it aside.

In the large bowl, combine the salt and melted butter with both sugars, and mix with the spatula till well combined and slightly fluffy. Then add the eggs and vanilla and do the same. (Here is where I use the immersion blender for a few seconds to whip air into it and ensure everything is aggressively homogeneous.)

In 2-3 stages, mix the contents of the medium bowl into the large until just barely combined.

Use the empty bowl to weigh the oats, then add and gently mix until evenly distributed.

Refrigerate the dough for at least 30m, or ideally overnight.

Line the half-sheet tray with parchment. Using heaping tablespoons (or a #50 portion scoop if you have one), tray out cookies 12 at a time in a 3x4 configuration, refrigerating any unbaked dough until needed.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, and allow to cool for another 5 once out of the oven before removing them from the tray.

Recipe Dev: G&T Trifle/Parfaits

 

    Gin was not always my liquor of choice for mixed drinks, but I do love a nice burst of citrus flavor, so learning the ways of a gin and tonic with a hefty squeeze of lime was all but inevitable.

    However, I'm also apparently rather geared toward developing desserts, and have several cocktail-flavored dessert recipes in pocket that have been quite well received, of which this is... technically two, but combines to one.

    This dessert concept started in those confounded single-serving Costco tiramisu cups. A housemate had bought and eaten them, leaving me to ponder concoctions I might manage with the empty vessels. By happenstance, there was lime jello in my cupboard, so I started there.

    Now, the dish itself is easy as can be. It's almost all refrigeration time preparing the Jello component, so you can get that done any time a day or two ahead for ease. The rest takes about a half an hour to prepare and assemble.

Ingredients

1 3oz package Lime Jello        
Juice and zest of 2 limes, to be used in different components
1 cup gin**, divided use
1/4 cup Tonic Water
1 package Savoiardi or other sponge cookie
1 cup heavy/whipping cream
2 Tbsp powdered sugar

Equipment

2 medium bowls, one pie tin or shallow dish, whisk, microplane, knife, cutting board, measuring cup, desired serving vessels.    

Directions

In one bowl prepare the lime Jello. Deviate from the package directions by dissolving the Jello in 3/4 cup boiling water, then allow to cool for 3-5 minutes.
While the Jello is cooling, zest the limes- in the second bowl, combine the lime zest, cream, and powdered sugar, stir or whisk lightly to remove any lumps, then refrigerate.
Return to the cooling Jello mixture, add 1/2 cup gin, the tonic water, and the juice of both limes, stir, then refrigerate. This may take an hour or two to set properly.

At this time, chill the intended vessels as well if you have the space to do so.

(At this point there is some downtime. Go do something else- you can pick up once the Jello is fully solidified.)

Dice the cooled and hardened Jello into half-inch cubes.

Place the remaining gin in the shallow dish and prepare the sponge cookies. If they need to be broken or torn into smaller pieces to fit in your desired vessel(s), do this now. 

Remove the chilled cream mixture from the refrigerator and whip to soft peaks.

Make a layer of Jello dice on the bottom of your chilled serving vessel(s).
Dip pieces of sponge cookie in the gin and place them on top of the Jello.
Top the cookie with a hearty dollop of whipped cream, volume approximately equal to the Jello.

Serve immediately. 

**While my gin of choice for drinking tends to be Hendrick's, something I picked up from my beau, the one I recommend for this recipe is Tanqueray Rangpur due to its vigorously sweeter, more citrus forward profile, as well as its higher proof.
For those new to gin, the two previous links are from The Gin Guild, which offers a thorough grounding in the basics of the spirit.

Recipe Dev: 'Gluten Free Almond Cookies'

 

    Yes, I know GF baking has a reputation of being not terribly palatable. Flour substitutes can yield crumbly or dusty results when it comes to cookies, or dense blocks when talking cakes. Lots of progress has been made in recent years though, and some tinkering at the cooking school yielded a rather nice result. I use it as a variant on Mexican Wedding Cookies.

    This recipe is quite simple, if a touch pricey due to the expense of almond flour. It makes about 3 dozen, and they'll keep on the counter in a box for most of a week, or even left out uncovered for a few days if you're feeling brave about it. Benefit of no gluten- nothing to go stale!

Ingredients

12 oz almond meal

8 oz sugar (superfine preferred)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp almond extract

Pinch kosher salt

4 egg whites

2 Tbsp honey

~8 oz pepitas

AND

2-3 cups powdered sugar.

Equipment- Large bowl (2), whisk, shallow dish or bowl (2), sheet tray, portion scoop (#50/2Tbsp is ideal), parchment paper, tablespoon, scale.

Instructions
Oven- 325F
Prepare two shallow dishes or bowls- one for the sliced almonds, another for powdered sugar.

In a large bowl, gently combine almond flour, sugar, salt, extract, and cinnamon.
In a second bowl, whisk the egg whites and honey until firm peaks form.
Gently fold the egg white mixture into the other ingredients.
This should result in a smooth, moldable paste.

Using a small scoop or your hands, gently form the dough into 2-tablespoon size balls. Roll them in the sliced pepitas to cover, then in the powdered sugar.

Place in neat rows on a parchment-lined sheet tray with at least 1-2 inches of room between.
Flatten each cookie slightly until it looks more like a disc than a ball.

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until slightly golden but still very soft. Allow to cool on the sheet tray.